SYRACUSE, NY -- Nine-year-old Christiana Crossman was playing in a second-floor bedroom at 314 Marguerite Ave. this afternoon when she stopped to watch her dad help rescue a cat stuck in a tree.

One minute, Christiana imagined herself a princess. The next, she watched in horror as her father collapsed. He later died.

Robert J. Crossman, 29, of 311 Marguerite Ave., Syracuse, was steadying a metal ladder at a nearby relative's home while another man climbed after Fluffy, a white cat, said his mother-in-law, Blanche Burns. The ladder came in contact with a power line. Crossman was electrocuted.

"I just didn't know what happened," said Christiana. "I was crying a lot. He was trying to save the cat. We can't buy another dad."

Police gave the following account:

Crossman and another man propped a ladder against a tree about 4:15 p.m. The other man climbed the ladder and Crossman stayed on the ground, Sgt. Tom Connellan said. He did not identify the man on the ladder.

Crossman was shocked unconscious while trying to reposition the ladder. He was taken by ambulance from the scene and pronounced dead at Community General Hospital.

At least five power lines cut through the tree that sits between the street and the sidewalk. The ladder touched the highest wire, police said.

Police are investigating why Crossman was electrocuted, while the man on the ladder was not.

Crossman was fatally shocked when he moved the ladder, Connellan said. Because electricity flows until it reaches ground, the electricity had to flow through him to hit the ground.

As long as the man on the ladder wasn't touching anything else, the current wouldn't pass through him.

A National Grid spokesman declined comment. He urged anyone with a cat in a tree to call National Grid if there are power lines around.

The cat eventually made it to safety.

In addition to his daughter, Christiana, Crossman is survived by two other children: Christian Crossman, 7, and Matthew Goodrich, 5, family said.